The Ex
by ChronicallyinFlaming
Summary: Written for mass kink meme. While out shopping with Liara, Shepard runs into her ex.


**The Prompt: FemShep runs into exgirlfriend**

_Title says it all. On shore leave Shep runs into her ex. A!A can make it funny, awkward, sexy I don't care._

_Bonus:_  
_Shepard is on the more butch/masculine side_  
_Her ex is girly as hell_

_Also current LI can be mentioned or there. Or a shep that is single and ready to mingle is cool too._

**The Fill:**

* * *

When Jane realized who that person was, that woman giving her side looks that were not leering or admiring, she immediately turned around and began jogging for the door. Leaving a confused Liara behind, looking bewildered and increasingly pissed, because it had been hard enough to even get Shepard to do something as normal as go shopping for furniture and niceties. Such as actual plates so they wouldn't have to eat standing in front of the sink, straight out of the pot. 'They could have a real kitchen,' was how Liara had tried to reason this benign hell of china patterns onto Jane.

'Oh, fine, you can pour that chocolate sauce on me, but only if we get more towels and some real sheets rather than just using your jackets as a blanket,' was how Liara had bribed Shepard into really wondering, if only briefly, what curtains would look the nicest in the living room of their new apartment.

But those blue biotics that Jane knew so well lashed out, _locking _the door. Since getting to know the Commander, Liara had become very good at using those for the tiny things. It was all well and good to be able to throw tables around, but it took real talent to use biotics to help put together furniture they'd found during a particularly rough afternoon of shopping for just end tables. One where'd they threatened to leave the other-_goddamn it I just want those salt and pepper shakers shaped like fish is that so much_-only to make out in the parking lot while their cart went flying into traffic and they had to go back and settle for something they both hated.

It was not one of those bad ex-stories that went through her head, oh no. That would have been the universe deciding to soften up its stance on hating Shepard.

Jane was the shitty, crazed ex of stories that single people exchanged to make each other and themselves feel better for not being in a relationship. The person that made the listeners shake their heads and thank their own good luck. 'Did she really call you up at three a.m. to break up with you, only to sober up and beg forgiveness at six a.m.? Twice?'

To be fair, it had been a rough moment in her life. Joining the N7s and all the stress involved in that, losing her Father, becoming increasingly estranged from her Mother. While she had her first serious relationship. A maelstrom of emotions boiling up that left her reeling and leaving too many messages in her ex's inbox.

Looking back, it was really, really for the best that they'd broken up. So what if it had gotten Jane to go on a hateful, revenge-shore-leave to Elysium? Regardless of the nearly dying, and the nightmares and losing friends, she'd discovered that steel buried in her (literally, after the fight was over), and that there were worse things than losing a relationship.

Still, just seeing her brought back these feelings, and memories. Standing there in her new uniform, while her girlfriend went down on her while Jane watched in the mirror. The fights that were resolved after Jane would break down crying. Pity fucks, aw god, why did she have to remember so many of those pity fucks. That horrible realization that her calls were being dodged. Confrontations that ended with someone storming out, once without her coat and resulting in getting very sick, alone and miserable.

She saw all that in those eyes. Steady and even and blue, eyes that sucked in light rather than reflected it as Liara's did. The only other person besides the asari that had caught up to her and was looking pissed, that knew about her sexual habits and idiosyncrasies, that she liked to sing in the shower, preferred sleeping on couches, had night terrors that involved punching, and what her face looked like when contorted with tears.

Startled, Jane realized there was some strange resemblance between this woman and Miranda. Cerberus really did not miss any trick.

Also surprising, that despite the years and feats, she still felt like this dumb twenty-something-year-old that didn't know how to express herself and worried about how she kissed and what do say on dates. Whenever she was out with Liara, on a real date with nice clothes, words came out about missions or about something life threatening, or Liara would fill any silences with little facts that still impressed Shepard. Comfortable enough to really argue about little things like who got to do the dishes and that they could talk when one of them burst into tears during sex, bad tears.

"Did I grab your crests too hard again? Is this about that armchair I got?"

"No, I'm just very happy you're here."

The person who didn't laugh too hard or shame her when she would dance, and fell asleep cuddling with and showered with in un-sexual ways where they'd bicker about who got to stand directly beneath the nozzle.

Inevitably, the woman came up to them as Liara was chewing her out. Bizarre, to see them together. "Jane?"

"Hey. There."

"I heard…about everything." Didn't know the person I once saw vomiting into a trash can while I held her hair back had it in her, was the subtext. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

"No. A lot has happened."

"Shepard, who's this?"

"Um. Yeah. Liara, this is an old friend…"

"It's okay, Jane."

"Right. Yes. This is my Doctor, Liara T'soni. Not that she's my doctor. Physician. Or psychologist. This is my girlfriend, Liara T'Soni."

"Nice to meet you."

Exchanging greets, smiles, glances at over the red-haired woman they'd both seen naked. Shepard stood there, pretending she really cared about these whisks over here, while they talked, joked. Said how nice it was to meet each other, and that it was good to see Jane was up and around after what had happened on Earth, wasn't it? Talking about her like she was three-years-old, she's going to school, oh, its just nursery school, isn't that adorable. Which annoyed her, and yet, she was dumbly glad that Liara was the one to hold up the conversation.

…then Liara was leaving, for them to talk alone and to look at this lamp that Shepard knew she would knock over in the middle of the night as she got up to make tea and get an ice pack for her hand after her latest nightmare.

There was a look given, one that Miranda had given her after a dumb stunt, eerie, and Jane clung to that. "I can't believe that's the Doctor T'Soni."

"Oh, yeah. She's the brains. I'm the brawn." Terrible.

"And you dating her…an asari huh. Another asari."

"Oh, for god's sake, that wasn't—"

"I know. God, Jane, that was more than five years ago. Feel free to take shots off_ this_ asari's stomach."

"Oh, I do."

"You're the luckiest person I know, Shepard. I really hope you're doing well."

"Yeah. I am."

Then she was being hugged and feeling breasts she used to fantasize about when alone in her bunk. All she could do was awkwardly pat her back. "Okay, okay."

"I'll see you around."

Shepard was glib inside, sincere outside. "Sure. Totally."

"No, really, I will. Liara invited me to join you two for dinner. Weren't you listening? Oh, Jane. Still not listening when I talk. Unless you'd rather I not come-?"

"…no, that's fine. Really. We'll tell stories. Uh."

"I'll only tell her the good things. Swear it. I won't even tell her anymore about that time you got drunk and lost your pants in a supermarket. If she asks to hear more, I'll change the subject."

"Well. Thanks. But before you leave, do I bad taste when decorating apartments?"

"Let the doctor handle it, Shepard."


End file.
